Bodies of maize, eaters of grain comparing material worlds, metaphor and the agency of art in the Preclassic Maya and Mycenaean early civilisations / Marcus Jan Bajema.

Author/creator Bajema, Marcus Jan, 1979-
Format Electronic
Publication InfoOxford : Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, [2017]
Descriptionvi, 351 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 30 cm.
Supplemental ContentFull text available from Ebook Central - Academic Complete
Subjects

SeriesArchaeopress archaeology
Archaeopress archaeology. ^A1259174
Summary Bodies of Maize, Eaters of Grain provides a comparative study of the earliest urban civilisations of the Maya lowlands and the Greek mainland. It builds upon earlier comparative studies by Gordon Childe, Robert Adams and Bruce Trigger, extending their work into new directions. Specifically, the focus lies on the art styles of the Late Preclassic lowland Maya and Mycenaean Greece. The approach used here seeks to combine more traditional iconographic approaches with more recent models on metaphor and the social agency of things. Comparing Maya and Mycenaean art styles through the three aspects of metaphor, semiotics and praxis, their differences and similarities are made clear. The book shows art to have played a more active role in the development of the earliest urban civilisations, rather than passively reflecting economic and political trends. In that way, the social role of art provides a key to understanding the relations between the different factors in the development of the two societies, as they played out at different temporal and geographical scales. To understand this, the notion of distinct Maya and Mycenaean 'material worlds', involving both materials and ideas, is proposed, with consequences for models about the earliest urban civilisations in general.
General noteOutgrowth of the author's thesis (doctoral--Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, 2015) under the title: A comparative approach toward understanding the Mycenaean and Late Preclassic lowland Maya early civilisations through their art styles.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 302-347).
Access restrictionAvailable only to authorized users.
Technical detailsMode of access: World Wide Web
Genre/formElectronic books.
LCCN 2017304503
ISBN1784916919 (paperback)
ISBN9781784916916 (paperback)

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